Workshop of Maestro Jacopo da Pesaro or Maestro Lodovico, Italian, Venice, circa 1520-1550

Sotheby's Milan, 11 December 2008, lot 3; 

Rainer Zietz Ltd., London, 2010. 

In the 16th century, Venice played a dominant and strategic role in Mediterranean maritime traffic and land routes, making ‘La Serenissima’ a commercial hub for the import of Chinese porcelain and Islamic, Persian and Ottoman ceramics, influenced by Ming porcelain designs.

The ornamentation on such pieces, like the present dish, especially the garlands on the reverse, and another in the MAK Collection in Vienna, are directly inspired by Chinese porcelain, widely imported into Italy, particularly through Venice, Genoa, and Florence, during this period. Moreover, the design closely aligns with a drawing by Cipriano Piccolpasso in his manuscript The Three Books of the Potter’s Art (circa 1557), labelled alla porcellana.

Many scholars link this group of finely crafted Venetian maiolica with similar glaze and decoration on a berettino background to a plate in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is painted in a similar style and marked as made in Maestro Lodovico’s workshop in Venice’s San Paolo district. On this basis, several works have been attributed to Lodovico. However, unlike his contemporary Jacomo da Pesaro, Lodovico has a modest profile in archival records and may have run a short-lived workshop, possibly a branch of Jacomo’s. 

Other comparable plates in the Museo Nacional des Artes Decorativas, Madrid, The Kuckei collection, and formerly in the Emden Collection are listed in Wilson (Tin-Glaze and Image Culture. The MAK Maiolica Collection in its Wider Context, Vienna/Stuttgart, 2022, no.100, p.146.) and examples are formerly in the collection of Wilhelm Bode and in the Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent. 

RELATED LITERATURE

T. Wilson in L. Hollein, R. Franz, and T. Wilson, Tin-Glaze and Image Culture. The MAK Maiolica Collection in its Wider Context. Catalogue by Timothy Wilson, Vienna/Stuttgart, 2022, No. 100, p.146;

T. Wilson, Italian Maiolica in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, 2015, p. 106;

Carboni Stefano (ed.), Venezia e l’Islam: 828-1797, Venezia, 2007, Marsilio, cat. n.140. p.306;

J.V.G. Mallet, F. A. Dreier, The Hockemeyer Collection, Maiolica and Glass, Bremen, 1998, No.23, pp.150-151;

B. Rackham, Catalogue of Italian Maiolica, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1940, Volume II No. 960, 270, fig. 8 (inv. no. 4438-1858).